About our Trip: The Summary

November 1, 2016

About our trip: the summary

Back in August, after Joe’s team at Microsoft finished Windows 10 for PCs (aside: the BEST-EVER version of Windows that MS has ever produced!) He had a 1-1 with Terry Myerson who runs the Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft…

“I’ve been here 25-years, it’s been terrific and I’ve loved it—but in two years my kids will be too old to pull out of school and go travelling. For as long as I can remember, I’ve fantasized about the idea of a long, around-the-world trip with my family … and I think now is the right time to do it.”

Terry understood completely and within 12 hours we had approval from anyone at Microsoft who’d get a vote. The deal was sealed: Kristina and I would be taking the Belfiore family on an unprecedented journey around the world in three parts:

US Tour: The South, Washington DC, New York.
Our kids have never seen the great east-coast cities of the US, and we thought this would be an excellent circumstance to spend some real time there, educate them on our history, and “warm up” for….

Semester at Sea: Around the World.
From January to April, we’ll be aboard a small cruise ship with ~600 college students who will be taking real classes. We head east from San Diego, with stops in XX countries (see below). The ship typically stops in each port for just a few days, ending in London..

European ImmersionThe cruise doesn’t spend any time in Europe—but we’re going to. From Late April into the summer we’re going to pick a few cities in Europe and get a small apartment and spend some depth time there. AS of today – Nov 11 — we have NO STOPS PLANNED in Europe. We’ll work on those this fall and I’ll update the blog when something’s figured out..

We don’t know our exact return date since we don’t have our Europe part planned—but we’re expecting to be home in the first part of August.

Our Planned Itinerary

. Here’s the full voyage itinerary with details on their website.
. After the ship arrives in London, we’ll stay in Europe through July. We don’t have any of these specific plans figured out yet,. though! Stay tuned here as specifics emerge.

Getting Ready

There’s not that much to describe here… we’ve split up the work and covered:

Paperwork by Kristina: you’ve never seen such a gigantic set of visa applications and medical forms. Semester at Sea is NOT messing around. Check out the look on Piper’s face the day the twins each got (chose!) 3 shots instead of just two!

Blog is a Premium WordPress blog…special thanks to Behan who’s travelling “perpetually” with her family for the blogging advice!Got more questions? Just ask. We’ll put them in the FAQ.